Media Luna-Granma.— Under the gray sky of December 1956, in a clearing known as Cinco Palmas, the history of Cuba held its breath. Fidel Castro arrived there after the ambush at Alegría de Pío and days of scattered walking through the cane fields of Oriente. He did not arrive with an army, but with the compact seed of perseverance.
At midnight, under the new palm trees in Mongo Pérez's cane field, footsteps can be heard approaching. It is the long-awaited encounter. The two brothers, Fidel and Raúl, embraced with restrained emotion, charged with the anguish of the previous days and the ferocity of survival. Then, in the shadows, the brief dialogue that would go down in history emerged:
"How many rifles do you have?" Fidel asked.
"Five," Raúl replied.
"And I have two, seven! Now we will win the war!"
That expression was not an act of blind faith, but a correct assessment that with that core of moral steel, strategy, and the mountains, anything was possible. It was Fidel's most important lesson: never give up, even in the face of the most extreme adversity.
The following days confirmed his calculation. Other expeditionaries such as Efigenio Ameijeiras and Ramiro Valdés joined that original core, and then peasants from the area, creating the embryo of the Rebel Army. On December 25, that group, now strengthened with more rifles and determination, began its definitive retreat into the Sierra Maestra.
That day marked an unparalleled quality of the Revolution: rebirth. Cinco Palmas, therefore, was not just a geographical point, it was the founding moment of a principle that transcends time: victory does not wait for perfect conditions, but is built with collective will.
